Dolce & Gabbana, as Gianluca Lo Vetro clearly said, opposed the pauperistic aesthetics of the neorealist style to the fashionable and flamboyant imagery of the career woman of the eighties. Thanks to them the sicilian look and its regional details have become a real global style to wear. A world of contradictions which aims toward new and unexpected visions. "The style of Dolce & Gabbana is full of surprises and it is created on contrasts between classical and explosive, sexy but serene. A revolutionary fashion", said Naomi Campbell. Exactly the same thought as Stefano Gabbana, who argues: "We cannot do one style, it is unnatural, nobody wants to be always just the same". But what remains constant is the evocation of Southern Italy. "We want to use the past but project toward the future," added the two designers.

"Dolce & Gabbana interpret and reinvent the sexy Italian woman. The changing look shows the most brilliant part of their style. With the clothes of Domenico and Stefano, you just open the wardrobe to change personality!" said Linda Evangelista.

The Mediterranean temptress with corset, high heels, leopard fur of prostitutes of the Palermo, brocade, the show of underwear, flower design taken from the botanical gardens in Palermo, patchwork, the precious velvet and the men’s pinstripe suit worn with confidence by androgynous women.

"With their men's fashion, Dolce & Gabbana have not only reinterpreted the street, but the whole world behind it, giving us nobs, bandits, Sicilian shepherds, Neapolitan rogues, Jean Cocteau and Jack Kerouac. During this evolution they have created a new aristocracy of masculine style", said James Truman. Dolce & Gabbana have defined the figure of a sexy man, who uses his body as a weapon of pleasure and seduction. He is metrosexual or not, but always manly and confident. A man who loves to show off fine sparkling clothes under the stars, when the nightlife made of cocktails, disco and parties starts.

The Sicilian aristocratic dandy with the robes of the Prince of Salina, velvet loafers, the baroque decorativism, the jacket with "Martini" cut, with narrow waist and one or two buttons, and excellent tailoring.

Text: Leonardo IuffridaTranslation: Alessandro MancarellaIf you will use this text and info, please source and link them to Nob homepage.

Dolce & Gabbana begun their extraordinary career by sending marzipan prickly pears and tissue paper of Sicilian oranges as invitations to their fashion shows and offering dinners on plates from Caltagirone. Saying that they have showed creativity and spirit of initiative from the beginning is a euphemism. If it is said that fortune favors the bold, Dolce & Gabbana are true examples of courage for all.

ESSENTIAL STORYDomenico Dolce was born in 1958 in Polizzi Generosa, Palermo. He learnt to sew at the age of seven years thanks to his father Saverio, who had a small clothing company. Stefano Gabbana was born in Milan in 1962 and following in the footsteps of his father he decided to study graphics. A partnership of intent bloomed from their first meeting at the club Amnesia and when they were invited by Beppe Modenese to Milan for New Talent Collections in 1985, the brand Dolce & Gabbana was paraded for the first time. The collection represented the archetypal woman of Sicily, Dolce’s homeland and the place of summer vacation and love affairs for Gabbana. The first men’s collection was created in ‘90, followed in ’94 by D & G line, for young people, and by D & G Junior, shown at Pitti Bimbo in Florence in '99. The last two are more closely associated with street fashion, closer to the trend of the season and dominated by the logo. Since 2000 several corners have opened around the world, including Beverly Hills, Miami, Piazza di Spagna in Rome, Venice, Riccione, Munich and in 2003 they created an area of three floors in Corso Venezia in Milan, not just a store, but a real men’s club with Sicilian barber and fitness center with massages. In the same year they launched the new fragrance Sicily Dolce & Gabbana. The face of the advertising campaign was the Italian actress Monica Bellucci, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore in a beautiful spot with music by Ennio Morricone. In 2005 the two designers brought back the Metropol, a historic cinema in Milan in the late forties to its former glory, and now used for fashion shows and events. In 2006 the Gold, which is a space dedicated to the culinary sphere, was inaugurated in Milan. Swide was published in 2008 and it is the online magazine of the brand. In 2009 they offered the first make-up set with Scarlett Johansson as the face, photographed by Sølve Sundsbø, promoting the exhibition about fashion photography Extreme Beauty In Vogue. On 23rd June 2010 they launched dandgstore.com, the first online boutique of the brand. For autumn-winter 2010 they went back to their roots, using background music and scenes from Giuseppe Tornatore’s film Baarìa. “We care little for the clothes – they said provocatively – we aim for feelings. An overwhelming story of love for fashion that will never die."

We are pleased to let you peek in the new "Zegna in_STORE”, which is a new 3D shopping experience that will be officially launched on 23rd June 2011. Milla Jovovich will be our exclusive guide.The spaces, in which the user will be able to move, and the presentation of the clothes and accessories will be absolutely realistic and reproduce the atmosphere of the Zegna flagship stores located throughout the world.You will enjoy "Zegna in_STORE" through an application for iPhone and iPad, downloadable from iTunes, as well as through a Flash version.Welcome to the digital revolution!

“I am a voyeur, I think that every photographer is a voyeur. You spend your lifetime looking through a keyhole”. Nowadays Helmut Newton’s words resonate as a manifesto for bloggers, who creep creep around in the backstage of fashion shows with their cameras to finally shoot the models of the moment face-to-face. This is something we do as well as we have been hit by the same virus. But there is someone able to play a trick on us and to make it even easier, by combining the public and private spheres. We are talking about the young Dutch fashion designer Sjaak Hullekes who made an unconventional choice during the Parisian presentation of his latest collection. “I wanted to create an intimate atmosphere, where you can see models changing and wearing my clothes, and at the same time you can see the fabrics closely and understand how the items are. I’m mostly interested in the interaction”. This is also a way to attract prying eyes with the aim of becoming the fanciullino of Pascoli's poetic, fully part of and present in what we are surrounded by. “When you go to Paris for the first time, you are carried away by its charm, but when you leave you lose its magic and you forget it. It can also appear normal, if you are born in this fascinating city. How amazing it would be if people focus more on details, willing to look at reality with new eyes and the same about fashion too”.This time Sjaak Hullekes takes inspiration from nature and its rich repertory and he chooses dusty tones, transparencies and sharp cuts, which are signed with the unmistakable sword contained in his gold logo. On the horizon we do not see the idealized and intangible Tadzio, who is a character in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, but finally a man whose immature and natural beauty is closer than we might think.